Rangiku could sense something shift in the darkness around them. She nudged Shelke, the Ex-Tsviet having fallen asleep while they remained trapped inside, and pointed out her discovery.
"Nero must have caught someone." Shelke replied. She blinked as Rangiku's face contorted with worry.
She was right to worry.
Hyorinmaru roared in fury at the darkness surrounding them, trying to break free of it without losing Toshiro. As for the Soul Reaper, he could only look on in horror. Beneath him, the ice dragon vanished in a flash of white light and he felt something latch onto him from within, but by then the darkness had swallowed him.
"I have you now, Ice Captain." Echoed the dark voice of Nero. "Let's see what makes you cry, child. Fear is what breaks the spirit."
Toshiro was alone. He was trapped in never ending darkness. The emptiness he felt with Hyorinmaru gone tripled in its pull and attempted to drown him. He couldn't think straight, couldn't pull out of it. His body shook as his mind became trapped in memories he never wanted to see again.
The face of Aizen, smiling as he stood there in the blood of those he killed, the other traitor Captains standing with him.
"You are weak, Hitsugaya." Aizen mocked. "You could never hope to kill me."
"Damn you!" Toshiro snarled.
Aizen's hand flicked upwards and the scar left behind from the Winter War split open again while the traitor simply stood there, leering at him.
"Children should learn to respect their masters." The silver haired Gin chuckled. "Or terrible things might happen."
The three vanished but the pain remained, more painful than when he'd first gotten it. He screamed in pain, unable to stop.
Several visions flashed before his eyes. His grandmother, freezing to death because of his own powers. The children of the Rukon district jeering at him, calling him a freak.
'I'm not a freak!' His control had snapped as he whimpered, cowering away from the horrible antics of the other kids.
His time at the Soul Reaper Academy where his best friend was killed for also having Hyorinmaru as a zanpaktou. The fact that HE was the one to kill him. Then the near murder of Momo, his sister, at the hands of Aizen while the bastard simply smiled at her to the end. How even after she woke up she believed in Aizen, thought he could be saved. How he was powerless to kill Aizen every time they met.
How during the Winter War he had been the one to stab Momo while under the impression it was Aizen.
"No!" Toshiro barely registered that he was crying. "I didn't mean it Momo!
"For one so small you have a great many terrors in your life." Nero's voice sneered. "Though I suppose you can't hear me now, as deep into your fears as you have gone."
Nero's shadowy figure stood above the shivering, crying form that was Toshiro.
"Let's spin a nightmare so foul you'll never be able to recover from it." Nero knelt down and whispered this in Toshiro's ear, but the child did not hear him.
A piercing roar echoed in the darkness and Nero actually backed away from the child in shock.
"Hyorinmaru returns. Perhaps we can play nightmare another time, Shiro. I must pay a visit to Chaos." With that, the Tsviet left.
The visions faded from Toshiro's thoughts and he was dragged from the darkness into the depth of his Inner World. Even in his subconscious he would not wake and his body shook terribly from fear. Hyorinmaru curled protectively around his master, humming gently to ease his pain. Over time, the shaking stopped, and Toshiro was able to rest peacefully, his guardian keeping a watch out for any more of Nero's Oblivion.
As for the child's real body, Hyorinmaru had the darkness shift around him to take it to where he knew he would be safe.
Rangiku jumped as the shadows crept right up to her barrier, something they hadn't tried to do before, before noticing a figure inside. The darkness began to peel away, revealing a white haired child.
"Captain!" Rangiku was about to reach out and grab him but Shelke's hand on her shoulder reminded her that such an act would be suicide.
"I will keep the darkness away." A deep voice resonated outside the barrier, making both girls tense up. "Please, take him inside."
"Is that…Hyorinmaru?" Rangiku sat there for a moment, stunned, before she pushed up her sleeves and stuck her upper half out of the barrier, much to Shelke's protest. An icy barrier formed around her as the darkness jumped on the chance for an unprotected mind, giving her long enough to grasp her Captain around the middle and pull him inside, safe from the darkness,
She immediately took notice to his tear stained face and the deep wound on his shoulder. Plus, after pulling him safely inside, Toshiro had unconsciously gripped tightly to her and didn't seem about to let go anytime soon. Rangiku assumed a motherly stance and stroked the child's hair to calm him down.
"If he's been in here for too long there might be permanent damage to his mental state." Shelke warned. She didn't show it but the Ex-Tsviet was disturbed by Toshiro's childish behavior, especially after he'd expressed such a mature mentality.
"I'm sure he'll make it through alright." Rangiku countered while keeping her focus on the shaky Captain in her lap.
"I told you before, Oblivion targets a person's worst fears and brings them back. I don't know what his fears would be, but by the looks of it, they were hard on him."
Rangiku knew exactly what kind of fears Toshiro had and it explained his current state perfectly. It also worried her greatly; Hitsugaya had tried very hard to forget those events, and having them so forcibly pushed to the forefront of his thoughts…
"He'll make it through alright." The Lieutenant repeated. She kept Toshiro with her while renewing her efforts at trying to find a way out.
Near the entrance of the central reactor, Vincent paused. He'd seen what had happened to Hyorinmaru and Toshiro, but he had no way of finding them.
"So glad to finally meet you, Vincent Valentine."
The gunman turned to see Nero there. Perfect.
"I at first considered you and the child a nuisance, but I've found I can't let you run around unchained. I must protect my beloved brother."
"Brother?" Vincent ruby eyes narrowed at the black Tsviet.
"Dear Weiss, powerful Weiss. The only person who ever loved me and the only person I will ever love."
"What did you do with Toshiro?"
Nero paused, not having expected the sudden question. If the mask had been gone, Vincent would have seen the man grin evilly.
"Shiro? The boy is currently writhing in his mind of nightmares. I must say, I never expected such large amount of pain in one small body. Your companion has been through Hell far worse than the pain we go through to become a Tsviet." Nero paused as he saw Vincent's eyes widen in horror. "Did you not know? His family was torn apart, his friends killed before his eyes, he was never accepted by the other children from the town he grew up in."
'He's been through that much pain?' Vincent thought, horrified. 'He stands so tall, acts so strong. I never imagined he'd been through so much.'
"He still goes through it, too. The other Captains don't take him seriously due to his age and he's been threatened by fellow Soul Reapers many a time."
"How do you know all of this?" Vincent demanded.
"When I trapped him in my darkness, of course. I found so many terrifyingly sweet nightmares hidden away in his mind. I think the best one is when he was tricked into stabbing his sister, under the impression it was his most hated foe."
Having had enough, Vincent drew his gun and prepared to fight. These memories were not to be told to others in such a way. Toshiro had never spoken of them; Nero had no right to shout them out as though they were common dreams. The Tsviet narrowed his eyes in a sneer; he knew he'd hit a nerve.
What a way to end the day. As painful as it was to write, i knew that having all those memories brought up at once would cause Shiro to lose his control, so as OOC as it may seem...well, for those of you who know him, you can probably understand why he would break down.